Elon Musk finally confirms Tesla cars are getting Spotify, but when?

After hinting about it last month, Elon Musk finally confirmed that Tesla vehicles, in North America, are getting Spotify integration, but it’s still unclear when?

In Europe, Tesla owners have been enjoying a Spotify app directly integrated into Tesla’s system for years now.

However, in North America, Tesla has a deal with Slacker to provide music streaming services to the fleet.

Slacker has been the subject of criticisms by some Tesla owners and it’s unclear why Tesla hasn’t integrated Spotify for its entire fleet, but it has been rumored to be a contractual issue.

The music service is relatively small and Tesla’s fleet integration actually represents an important part of the revenue of Slacker Radio’s parent company.

At one point, versions of Tesla’s Spotify app appeared in the code of North American vehicles on several occasions, but the feature was never made available to the US/Canadian fleet.

Earlier this year, Musk hinted that it could finally be coming, but now he has finally confirmed it on Twitter last night:

Coming

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 15, 2019

If it’s like in Europe, Tesla owners would be able to link their Spotify account and access a version of the Spotify app directly from their vehicle center display.

Tesla has been exploring many different options when it comes to music streaming inside its vehicles.

Back in 2017, Tesla even started working on its own music streaming service, but the project appears to have been put on the back burner.

Earlier this year, Musk also mentioned that Tesla is working on a “fun, little music tool coming later” and a “tweak” to music inside Tesla vehicles.

The music app update has been linked to Tesla’s V10 update, which should be pushed to the Early Access Program later this month.

Electrek’s Take

I’ve heard a lot of complaints about Slacker, but personally, I actually don’t think it is that bad and I use it pretty often in my car.

When I really want to use Spotify, I simply use my phone via Bluetooth.

However, I can see how having Spotify directly integrated into the Tesla software could be more convenient.

I am glad that Elon finally confirmed that it is coming after his last comment being more ambiguous but due to several false hopes in the past on that front, I still wouldn’t get ahead of myself here – though this comment coming when V10 is supposedly around the corner is encouraging.